Duncan: Spurs’ urgency tonight is self imposed

DALLAS – If tonight’s Spurs-Mavericks game seems a lot like a playoff game, it will owe more to the Spurs’ recent losses to the Lakers and Heat than to the rivalry between the two teams.

“We haven’t played great over the last five or six games,” Spurs captain Tim Duncan said after the Spurs’ morning shootaround at American Airlines Center here. “We’re trying to get back on track and play well. We know this is a very good team we’ll likely see sometime in the playoffs.”

Acutely aware the Spurs are yielding nearly nine more points per game in March than they had through February, Duncan said the team must regain its defensive focus.

“We’re trying to tighten up our game plan. We know this is the stretch run to playoffs, so we need to start playing our best basketball. We’ll figure out how to do that defensively, and on the offensive end I think we’ve been scoring enough points. We just need to figure out how to be a better defensive ball club.”